Tag Archives: train crash hyogo prefecture japan Ryujiro Takami

Today marks the second anniversary of a tragic train crash in Hyogo Prefecture that killed 107 people and injured over 500. They had a gathering commemorating the dead, but excluded the 23-year old driver, Ryujiro Takami’s name from the ceremony. Takami died too, of course. But Japan Railways is making the point that the accident was his fault, and hence he should not be honored–honoring him would marginalize the regret that the company is trying to express to the victims’ families.

This is interesting. What do you guys think of this decision by JR? Kinda cold, or appropriate given the circumstances?

Tangential thought: After last week’s Virginia Tech shootings, 32 stones were laid out on the campus lawn, each one representing a victim. On the fourth or fifth day after the tragedy, a 33rd stone was added to honor the death of the killer himself. Was VT claiming him as a victim too? Maybe. Maybe it means that anyone’s death, regardless of his mistakes or fuck-ups or psychosis, is a tragedy, no matter what. Or maybe it’s acknowledging that he, too, was a victim of something, even if it was just something in his head. Of course this is highly controversial, but I’m sure Cho’s family is deeply moved by the fact that someone thought it appropriate to mourn him, too.

In any case, I do feel bad for the train driver in the 2005 Hyogo incident. There is a lot of pressure on train drivers, especially in Japan, to be not a second late and barely a centimeter off in arriving at train stations. If there wasn’t so much pressure to be on time, he might not have lost control and everyone might still be alive. And how can that be just that one guy’s fault? In NYC, subways are late all the freaking time. But isn’t that because the MTA prioritizes safety over timeliness? I think the right approach would have been for JR to say, yeah. Our driver messed up. But instead of scapegoating him, we are doing our best to protect our employees and customers from this ever happening again.

I am also the founder of The Tofu Project, a boutique program that helps Japanese entrepreneurs and creators think deeper, tell better stories, and go out into the world in a much bigger way. We work with companies like Mixi, Japan Airlines, and Salesforce.com.

Sometimes I try to explain Japanese culture on CNN, BBC, CBC, WSJ, ABC (so many acronyms!) or in person at places like the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, ETech, and Ignite!